Embracing Our Global Marist Mission

In December, four Central Catholic students and two faculty members traveled to Florida to participate in the inaugural Marist Youth Mission Conference with students from the eight Marist schools in the United States.

Photo Album: Marist Youth Mission Conference

December 15 – 17, 2023, Our Lady of Florida Spiritual Center, West Palm Beach, FL

Click here to view and download photos on SmugMug.

Student Participants

• Melany Davis '26
• Griffin Murphy '26
• Shawn Phan '24 - Presenter
• Amelia Velasquez '26

Faculty Participants

• Mr. Timothy Hart '85, Campus Minister
• Ms. Bridgette Bolduc, Science Teacher

Participating Schools

Eight schools participated in the launch of the conference: 

• Archbishop Molloy High School – Briarwood, NY
• Central Catholic High School – Lawrence, MA
• Christopher Columbus High School – Miami, FL
• Marist High School - Chicago, IL
• Monsignor Edward Pace High School - Miami Gardens, FL
• Roselle Catholic High School - Roselle, NJ
• St. Joseph Academy – Brownsville, TX
• Mount Saint Michael Academy - Bronx, NY

 

About the Conference

The new Marist Youth program focuses on our Global Marist Mission and exploring how we are each called to live out that mission today here in the USA.

Students learned about the International Mission of the Marist Brothers - to make Jesus known and loved with particular focus on the youth.

They researched Marist work in 80 countries and then turned their focus onto the Marist work in the United States.

Central Catholic senior Shawn Phan '24 (above photo) shared about the work occurring at Central Catholic.

As one of their final projects at the conference, students created their own Marist inspired Mission statements.

 

---

About the Marist Brothers of the Schools

The Marist Brothers of the Schools is a Roman Catholic congregation of vowed teaching brothers founded by Saint Marcellin Champagnat in France in 1817.

Today, the Marist Brothers are an international religious community of more than 4,000 Catholic Brothers dedicated to making Jesus known and loved through the education of young people, especially those most neglected.

Marist Brothers are located in 81 countries in North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Oceania. There are over 600,000 young people in Marist schools around the world each year.

The Marist Brothers are joined worldwide by more than 70,000 lay men and women who share in their mission.

In the United States there are more than 130 Marist Brothers living in 32 communities across eight states.

Marist Brothers strive to make a difference in the world by showing young people that they are loved, safe and cared for.

Central Catholic was founded in 1935 by Brother Florentius and the Marist Brothers.

Our identity as Marists and as Catholics informs every aspect of school life.

Being Marist

Guided by the vision of Saint Marcellin Champagnat, we are dedicated to the education and spiritual development of the young. We are called to prepare young minds and hearts to succeed and make a difference in the world.

As Marists, we believe strongly in the importance and power of family; it’s at the very heart of the Central Catholic experience.

So much of what our alumni remember most—the abiding respect for everyone in our community, our commitment to the least favored, the dedication of our faculty, and the unbreakable bonds of friendship, can be traced directly back to the Marist tradition of family spirit.

The Five Pillars of our Marist Identity

The Five Pillars of Marist Identity were introduced by the Marist Province in 2015 as ideals to which all Marists, students and adults alike, should commit to.

The Pillars are:

Presence… caring for each other, seeking relationships founded on love, being attentive and welcoming with a sense of openness

Simplicity… being straightforward and genuine, humble and modest, ‘doing good quietly’

Family Spirit… relating to each other as members of a loving family, building community, offering the warmth of welcoming, acceptance and belonging, sharing our successes and failures, setting clear standards of honesty, mutual respect, and tolerance

Love of Work… being generous of heart, constant, and persevering in our daily work, confident, visionary, decisive in meeting the needs of our community and encouraging each other to discover the dignity of our work with young people and with each other

In the Way of Mary… seeing Mary as a perfect model of being Marist, tender, strong, constant in faith, open to God’s calling us to our own journey of discipleship